The Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre is hosting the SiGMA iGaming Malta Conference 2019 from the 27^th until the 29^th of November. This is the sixth year that this iGaming conference has taken place in this island country. Just like every year, this year’s event brings some of the industry’s leaders, a great variety of brands and suppliers from the world of online gaming together to discuss the latest industry trends, to share their upcoming projects and to simply network.

Just before the iGaming conference starts, the SiGMA Group is hosting the most prominent Malta iGaming Awards and the finalists for the event have been recently revealed. The Malta iGaming Awards event is held during the Malta Gaming Week event which takes place at one of the biggest facilities in Malta, the landmark Hilton. Alongside great networking opportunities, the event also brings iGaming luminaries for a great evening of celebration and recognition of their achievements.

Malta Gaming Awards

What is even more, the Malta Gaming Awards also features an impressive art auction whose proceeds go straight to the SiGMA Foundation. Interested individuals including iGaming fans and enthusiast can book individual seats for €175 while there are also group tables available for €1,750. This year’s event is hosted by Jessica Walker and Jon Thompson. Jon Thompson is a well-known name in the industry who has spent his whole life working for a variety of iGaming brands.

He is also a well-known name within the betting and horse racing industry in the United Kingdom. In his fruitful career, Jon has worked alongside many of the leading sportbetting and iGaming brands in the industry within many different jurisdictions including Malta, Curacao, Costa Rica, and Australia. Today, he works as an advisor of Price Automation and Risk Management for some of the industry’s leaders. He is also a regular host of the Malta and UK iGaming Idols as well as SiGMA charity events.

The 2019 Awards with Thirty Categories

As previously mentioned, this year’s event takes place at the Hilton Hotel located on St Julian’s on the 26^th of November. Like every other year, the event features a gala charity dinner while special artwork is also auctioned off. According to the organizer’s official press release, the awards 2019 will feature thirty different categories and shows which will focus on how the iGaming scene continues to diversify and expand every year. Top brands and operators are also included in the Malta Gaming Awards list of finalists while the awards’ winners are announced during the main gala ceremony.

Some of the event’s finalists as revealed InPlayMatrix, BetSoft, and Asia Gaming for the category of Asian Product of the Year. There are Pragmatic Play, Play’n GO and Yggdrasil Gaming for the Game Vendor of the Year. The finalists for the Online Casino of the Year are BitStarz, Betsson Group, and Kindred. The B2B Platform of the Year category includes Play’n GO, SkillOnNet and BetConstruct. There are also Gluck Games, NeoGames and Hacksaw which are finalists for the Instant Win of the Year category.

The Sportsbook Operator of the Year category features 1XBet, Betsson Group, and William Hill. Reel NRG, Play’n GO and Habanero made it as finalists for the Mobile Gaming Provider of the Year category while Zimpler, HiPay, and Trustly made it as finalists for the Payments Provider of the Year. There is also the Innovator of the Year category with Hero Gaming, Evolution Gaming, and VideoSlots as finalists.

The Swedish Spelinspektionen iGaming regulator has again fined a pair of casino operators for violating its very strict regulations. The operators who are fined by the Swedish regulator are Betsson AB and SkillOnNet Limited which reportedly violated the regulator’s provision related to reoccurring bonuses.

As reported last week, SkillOnNet Limited and Betsson AB have to pay a total fine of slightly over $3 million as both operators were found guilty of offering daily and weekly bonus surprises, free spins, rewards and other kinds of bonuses to their players which violated the regulator’s rules.

The new rules regulating the provision of bonuses and promotions were brought in six months ago any many operators active in Sweden have been adjusting to them following Sweden launching its regulated online gaming market back in January of 2019. This is not the first fine of this kind against iGaming operators as Spelinspektionen has already fined two other operators for similar violations earlier this month. As reported, both AG Communications and Genesis Global were penalized for being found guilty of bonus and promotion-related violations.

All Sorts of Reoccurring Restrictions Posed by the Regulator

As regulated by Spelinspektionen, online casino operators which are active in Sweden and which offer their services and products to players from Sweden are not allowed to offer any kind of reoccurring bonuses which allow players to benefit from one, non-transferable bonus or promotion. However, as stated in the regulator’s official press release regarding the latest incident, it seems as Betsson AB’s Nordic Limited subsidiary had violated these rules at its NordicBet.com by offering these kinds of strictly forbidden reoccurring bonuses to its registered players.

For this reason, the regulator decided that Betsson AB has to pay a fine or around $2 million. Following this press release, Betsson AB released its own official press release in which it states that Betsson AB had not agreed with the Swedish regulator’s interpretation of rules. The operator also stated that they believe their bonus offerings active at NordicBet.com had been completely in line what is actually permitted under the latest gambling legislations.

In their official press release, the operator also said that the regulations on bonuses and promotions are actually vague as they leave room for all sorts of different interpretations. When it comes to SkillOnNet Limited and its issued related to violating rules on bonuses, the company has been hit with a massive penalty of around $1.5 million as several of its main domains reportedly have broken the regulator’s iGaming rules by offering its players VIP packages, cashback bonuses, free spins and monthly and daily bonuses.

SkillOnNet Limited Previously Warned Over Offering Lottery Games

As reported, this Maltese company was previously warned for running online lottery games in the country despite the fact that online lottery is not licensed. SkillOnNet limited runs several online casinos including Prime Casino, PlayOJO Casino, and Luna Casino which offer lottery games to Swedish players despite lottery not being licensed.

Following these latest incidents and violations, Ardalan Shekarabi who is Minister of Civil Affairs said that online casino operators who fail to follow the country’s iGaming rules and legislations have to leave the market. While Betsson AB and SkillOnNet will not leave the market, they are penalized. The operators are also warned that not following the new regulatory framework is a serious violation which brings consequences.

According to the latest information, SkillOnNet has made a partnership deal with Red Tiger Gaming, and from now on, their impressive portfolio, comprised of 2000 games, will include exceptional Red Tiger Gaming releases. Furthermore, players will get to enjoy extraordinary games such as Mystery Reels, Dragon’s Fire, Thor’s Lightning, etc. Access to Red Tiger Gaming Power Reels series which have made such a splash will also be enabled via SkillOnNet.

Among popular Red Tiger games, there are Chinese Treasures, Dragon’s Luck, God of Wealth, Fruit Blox and many more.

In addition to slots with versatile themes, high-quality graphics, and innovative features, all Red Tiger games will have progressive jackpots aside from their daily jackpot awards. The latter jackpot option comes with a guarantee to be paid off even before scheduled time. Red Tiger Gaming portfolio also gives access for SkillOnNet to use their Smart Spins and marketing tools.

With this new deal, SkillOnNet gets to offer customers games with captivating, creatively-made gameplay, engaging special features, progressive jackpots that can provide lucrative outcomes and attractive design.

SkillOnNet Continues to Power Top Online Casinos

As an online casino gaming platform which delivers games with very high RTP percentages, concentrated on slots (video slots as well as classic slots), SkillOnNet mostly covers colorful games, meant for players all around the world. They include operators such as PlayOJO Casino, DruckGluck Casino, LuckyMeCasino, Lucky Niki Casino and many more.

Part of the SkillOnNet success is due to the easy approach they have when it comes to their products. Games can be download by all Windows users and played via Web browser no matter what operating system is used. Applying factors such as players’ activity, country popularity, and date of release, SkillOnNet has developed a super-smart artificial intelligence game recommendation engine which will offer titles to players in order to make their gaming experience approachable, easier to manage and more efficient.

The sales and marketing director at SkillOnNet, Michael Golembo stated that Red Tiger Gaming has provided some of the most thrilling and visually appealing games in the online gaming market, along with engaging gameplay thanks to features like daily jackpots. According to him, this agreement will expand their portfolio, giving players broader opportunities as well as impressive ones.

Red Tiger Gaming, on the other hand, even though it wasn’t established so long ago, gathers names, present in the gambling industry for quite some time. The provider is a proud owner of two licenses, proofs that they are trustworthy with their focus, set on European and Asian market. Their goal is to make their products more fun and thoroughly enjoyable for players. In their games, apart from superb graphics, they incorporate fitting to the theme audio as well as other innovations.

Red Tiger CEO, Gavin Hamilton has also spoken on the subject of the latest partnership, stating that casinos with the biggest growing trend are enabled by SkillOnNet platform. He revealed that Red Tiger will only contribute to this rate by granting unique products, packed by jackpots and marketing tools.